Serendipitous Nebular-phase JWST Imaging of SN Ia 2021aefx: Testing the Confinement of 56-Co Decay Energy

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2301.05718
• Publication Date: 2023-01-01
• Authors: Ness Mayker Chen; M. A. Tucker; Nils Hoyer; Saurabh W. Jha; Lindsey A. Kwok; Adam K. Leroy; Erik Rosolowsky; C. Ashall; Gagandeep S. Anand; Frank Bigiel; M. Boquien; Daniel A. Dale; James M. DerKacy; Oleg V. Egorov; L. Galbany; Kathryn Grasha; Hamid Reza Hassani; P. Hoêflich; Ralf S. Klessen; Laura A. Lopez; Jing Lü; M. Orellana; Francesca Pinna; Sumit K. Sarbadhi...; E. Schinnerer; Melissa Shahbandeh; David A. Thilker; Thomas G. Williams
• Keywords: Radioactive decay

We present new 0.3-21 micron photometry of SN 2021aefx in the spiral galaxy NGC 1566 at +357 days after B-band maximum, including first detection any Ia >15 micron. These observations follow earlier JWST +255 time maximum brightness, allowing us to probe temporal evolution emission properties. measure fraction flux emerging different wavelengths and its evolution. Additionally, integrated 0.3-14 decay rate $Δm_{0.3-14} = 1.35 \pm 0.05$ mag/100 is higher than decline from radioactive $^{56}$Co $\sim 1.2$mag/100 days. The most plausible explanation for this discrepancy that shifting >14 micron, future SNe will be able directly test hypothesis. However, models predicting non-radiative energy loss cannot excluded with data.